


A Sort of Walking Miracle

by auroreanrave



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Battle Couple, Character Death Fix, F/M, Fix-It, Fluff, Resurrection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-04 14:29:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14595027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auroreanrave/pseuds/auroreanrave
Summary: Mako Mori, previously thought deceased, awakens to fire and ash and pain, but she awakens nonetheless.





	A Sort of Walking Miracle

**Author's Note:**

> Hi. This was written after following Pacific Rim: Uprising of which I have many thoughts, but the main problem I have with it is the focus of this fic. I hope you enjoy this and it assuages a little something a lot of us felt. Title comes from Sylvia Plath's poem 'Lady Lazarus' which I thought rather apt.

Mako Mori, previously thought deceased, awakens to fire and ash and pain, but she awakens nonetheless.

The remains of the helicopter are spread around her in a corona of flame and debris, but she struggles to her feet, and pushes through the pain lighting up her nerves like firecrackers. A piece of shrapnel has punched through her lower abdomen and it sings with agony.

She thinks of home, of sleep, of Raleigh making her her favourite porridge and complaining when her cold feet press against his when they're watching his favourite black and white movies.

When she spots the PPDC troops heading for here, a medevac team on their tail, she finally smiles, brief and terse and bitter, and lets the darkness swallow her whole with a gulp.

 

 

* * *

 

Memories pulse through her mind as she sleeps. Or maybe they're not memories at all; Raleigh sat at her bedside, his chin a mess of straggly beard, his eyes sunken and tired, his body frail and winnowing. Mako dreams of him at her bedside, and half-imagines the voice in the back of her head that says Mako I need you to wake up now please.

She awakens four days after the crash, with the world changed beneath her feet, to a thunderstorm outside. She blinks awake, aching from head to toe, but alive, and sees Jake's head pillowed on the blankets pooled near her left ankle.

"Jake?" She asks and he raises his head. Blinks at her sleepily. He has stitches across his face and the hint of bruising across his jaw.

"Hey," Jake says, and then he remembers himself and pushes himself up to bring Mako up and into a hug. "I thought I lost you."

"You nearly did," she says, because Mako's never been one for sugar coating unless absolutely necessary. She doesn't want to taste dishonesty on her tongue.

"Where's Raleigh?" she asks.

Jake nods, releases her from the hug but hovers close. "Downstairs. He - he basically passed out after two days and we've been taking shifts when we've been able. A lot's happened."

Mako remembers. The message about Siberia. The fleeting moments of her connection with Raleigh - sun-gold and bright and warm, memories of sharing fruit in a kitchen and sleeping curled up together in view of the Hong Kong skyline - flutter to mind.

Jake doesn't even need to get Raleigh, because he's there seconds later, running into the private room. His hair is tied back in a sloppy bun and he hasn't shaved and smells a little like body odour and bad hospital coffee. He looks wrecked and worried, and Mako's heart shatters for half a second, before he's pulling her carefully to his heart.

They press forehead to forehead.

"Don't ever do that again," Raleigh says, moments later, when his breathing has slowed down.

"I didn't do anything," Mako squawks a little, but then he's kissing her forehead and she's laughing and Jake is smiling, so that's all worth it really.

 

 

* * *

 

 

The planet recovers, once more, from the kaiju. Mako spends her time in the hospital going over mission reports from the past week. Newton Geiszler. Liwen Shao. Tokyo. Mount Fuji. She reviews mission reports and statements and tallies of the dead and watches the feed as Suresh Khuran is interred and his holo-memorial is placed alongside the faces of the dead.

She feels an uncomfortable itch in her mind that a second too late and she would have been among the wall herself.

Raleigh rents an apartment in the city. He's always liked Sydney and he bring Mako non-sanctioned food; street vendor inarizushi in polystyrene packets, greasy newspaper parcels of nanbanzuke, and special taiyaki in the shapes of kaiju and Jaegars, more a treat for Raleigh because he has a secret sweet tooth.

She leaves the hospital two weeks later, a banadage tucked over the scar that will dot her belly, and Raleigh on one arm and Jake another, and thinks that her future has to change now.

 

* * *

 

The world recovers once more.

Raleigh and Mako's place in Sydney gets sold once Marshall Quan's successor has been found and Mako's permanent transfer has been signed off on. Hermann reports back about some progress in curing or treating Newton; Mako remains hopeful. She remembers everything the first time around well enough.

On her way out of the Sydney Shatterdome, she peeks in on Jake and Nate leading classes. Fondness for her brother spills out of her. They have dinner whenever they can now, and with Shao Corporation leading the charge on clean energy, there's no excuse not to hop on a plane whenever.

She feels ancient and new all at the same time, watching the recruits train and go about their practices. Raleigh tugs at the corner of her mind with a memory of their first spar, her father's eyes on her back, and she smiles to herself.

Mako Mori and Raleigh Becket move into their New York home three weeks later, with a hefty payment from the PPDC behind it. They have more rooms than they know what to do with. They fill one with their souvenir scraps of Jaegar tech and old memories. They find new haunts in the city, places with food spicy enough for Mako and bakeries sweet enough for Raleigh. They find a nook for themselves to build a sanctuary. To build a home.

Mako awakens one morning, the curve of her belly swollen against her nightdress, and looks out across the Manhattan skyline, dark purple becoming pink with promise. Raleigh's arm is warm around her, his dreams full of quiet, solid happiness, and she smiles, kissing his knuckles before settling back down to a sweet and dreamless rest.


End file.
